National Parks Service Inks $2.5M Marketing Pact with Anheuser-Busch

In its scramble for additional funding to spruce up parks for next year’s 100th anniversary celebration, the National Park Service is, apparently, up for whatever.

The park service has waived its policy prohibiting partnerships with alcohol makers, allowing the National Park Foundation to forge a two-year, $2.5 million deal with the world’s largest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev.

The alliance, designed to raise both cash and awareness for the park service’s centennial milestone and its ” Find Your Park” campaign, will see Budweiser cans and bottles wrapped in images of the Statue of Liberty, as well as Bud-branded events such as summer concerts inside yet-to-be-named park properties.

Park service director Jonathan Jarvis in his just-released memo approving the partnership said advantages of the deal included: “Aligning the economic and historical legacies of two iconic brands” and “Aligning the NPS brand with a corporate entity that has the same goals surrounding relevancy, diversity and inclusion.”